In Which Kerry & Paul Take Down A Wall

Home repair took an interesting turn on Friday. I cleaned off 6! layers of paint from the heating grate, bringing it down to the metal. And it wasn't evenly done--there's still bits where I have to get at it more with the CitriStrip and a scraper/brush. Nice tone to the metal though. I am undecided about whether to repaint it--the many paint layers obscured the detail of the grate, but I am not fundamentally against painted grates. I then spackled this huge crack in the wall and also went at the area around the heating vent where I took off plaster.

I was taking a break when Paul called. Those of you who read my other blog will know him as The Romance Heroine's boyfriend. When they came over for dinner last week, he offered to come and help me with any of my projects. And he followed it up with a phone call, proving that he is a nice guy! With tons of experience and ideas! He came dressed for painting (and agreed that the Lime Rickey was a bit vibrant but grows on you), but the first thing he tackled was the overhead ceiling fan. "Whoa! You know this isn't properly mounted, right?" Um, yes I had long suspected that.....

Not only did he get the broken lightbulb bit out, he also remounted the fan. Then he looked at my spackle job and pointed out that it's never going to be level--maybe we could cut out part of the wall and drywall it. It turns out Paul really likes to drywall. And he makes it seem so easy, even though we had to go to Ingersolls and two Home Depots to get the correct thickness of drywall and our other supplies. I also had to talk him out of buying extra drywall and a crazy plan of driving it back to my house with it balanced on the top of the car, but he was very reasonable about it.

It is quite fun to take a crowbar to a wall and take it down to the lathe. Super dusty, though. Scared the kitters too.

Behold the evidence!







We picked the Romance Heroine up after her tough day at wok and went out to dinner to toast the Marine Corps. We all went back to the house and RH really liked the green, and my bedroom (painted SW Chinese Red). Paul's coming back on Monday to finish up. He also like to peel wallpaper, agreed The Tuscan Nitemare Room is a huge mistake, and had some thoughts on my roof and the bathroom....I might have found myself a house guru.